We've been keeping a BIG secret

When we launched out for our third year of travels, we had a few things on our BINGO card. We were going to spend more time down South so we could be in prime position to see the total solar eclipse. We were going to tackle the Midwest, and in doing so, likely challenge ourselves to use Harvest Hosts like our travels depended on it. We were going to summer up north on the Great Lakes. Then we were going to finally RV to the Finger Lakes of NY and the Green Mountains of VT, because both of those destinations have been a long time coming.

For the most part, the year went as planned. We RVed in quiet campgrounds off the beaten path from the snowbird havens. We had the most beautiful waterfront site to witness the solar eclipse. We dove head-first into our Harvest Hosts Challenge, which pushed ourselves as RVers in ways our first two years of full-timing never did. Then we welcomed summer up in Wisconsin and Michigan, before heading back east to visit Watkins Glen, NY, then making our way back to New England, with our first stop being Bennington, VT.

That left us five whole months to travel around New England, our home region. We didn't have much of a plan, except that the extra time would grant us opportunities to do our adult responsible stuff: Attend conferences, schedule work events, and make medical appointments. We'd also get to do the fun stuff: See family and friends, and our favorite, experience the Northeast as RVers, free to roam to the furthest ends of the region and everywhere in between – or not, if that suits us better.

We did a little of both. We set up camp for two weeks at our go-to state park in a neighboring town to where we used to live. We tried a new RV resort in MA to see if we could finally find a good one in the eastern part of our state! We returned to NH, our favorite state, and found that a lot had changed at the RV parks we like to frequent. This was even more impetus to venture into new territory. We traveled to the NH North Woods, reaching the northernmost town before the Canadian border. We RVed in Maine for the first time, and even though we didn't go far, the magic came right to our campground.

Before we knew it, Columbus Day Weekend arrived, and campgrounds in the area started closing for the year. We made a few off-season reservations, but at this point, we were feeling pretty aimless. Correction: As full-time RVers, we were feeling aimless. As Nicole and Anthony, we hadn't felt more zeroed in.

Let's rewind, back to our week discovering that our favorite Lakes Region campground, Meredith Woods, was now Hunter's Run, and unlike in 2022 when we camped there in November, the campground would now be closing in October. We still wanted to squeeze in some time there, so we booked our stay for September, right after Labor Day Weekend. We love this region of NH, specifically the Lakes and the White Mountains. We know it well enough that we can venture out to our favorite haunts, but we can also stay in without feeling FOMO. It helps that we planned to someday make one of these towns our home, whenever we felt it was time to transition out of full-time RV life. That time wasn't now, but we used our future as insurance that we could roam this part of the state with no pressure. Someday, we'd see all the things.

Even still, we've kept our focus on the future very clear. We decided to RV full-time because our life as homeowners in Metro Boston didn't suit us anymore. We didn't need to be close to the city anymore, and so we wanted to live a more peaceful life, embracing the turn of events in 2020 that led us to remote work. Initially, we hoped to immediately buy land and build a home in NH, but financially it wasn't feasible. We'd need to sell our current house in order to afford the land, but then we'd have nowhere to live while we built our house. That's when we discussed living in an RV and traveling for a while. We did the calculations and realized that we'd be able to save money without all the expenses of home ownership in MA. For 3 years, we did just that. Behind the scenes, I was sporadically checking in on the real estate market, seeing if any promising listings for land popped up in our desired area of NH. Every once in a while, I'd send Anthony a Zillow link, and we'd look at the photos and say "Yeah, that one's nice," dreaming about the day we'd be in the position to do more than just marvel.

During our stay at Hunter's Run, I was feeling inspired by our return to NH, and so I ventured onto Zillow, just to see what was up. There it was, the most beautiful piece of land, partially cleared with mountain views, pending subdivision approval. It had just come on the market two days prior, and it was 20 minutes north of Hunter's Run. As usual, I sent Anthony the link. He was already asleep and would wake up to it the next day.

Only, the next day was different. We didn't just have our usual exchange. Instead, we actually talked about this property like it was a remote possibility. Granted, knowing we'd be spending so much time in New England this year, we did make a pact that "if the perfect lot of land comes on the market, we'll go look at it." We obviously didn't expect it to actually happen!

Not wanting to get ahead of ourselves, we first needed to go scout out the roads to see if we could get our RV up there. If we couldn't, it wouldn't be the perfect land after all. And so that evening, we ventured out to run errands, and scouting the neighborhood became one of the errands. Not only were the roads RV-friendly, but the neighborhood was lovely. Mountain views on both sides, adorable homes, and great energy. This was our turning point.

Two days later, we were looking at the property with a realtor we had just met. Two days after that, we were putting in an offer. Less than two months later, we were closing escrow and RVing to our land for the very first time.

Alright, so it wasn't all that simple. We weren't expecting to pursue any real estate ventures, so we were woefully unprepared. We had to rush to get preapproved for a loan, on a weekend, while hearing that "other people were interested" in the property. We ended up negotiating for more land after a misunderstanding of the location of the property lines. The seller wasn't sure he could part with that much land, at which point we thought we lost our chance. But, after some serious contemplation (and the feeling that it was "right" – seller's words), our new offer was accepted. Then we had to wait for subdivision approval, and after that, get all the documents in order.

That feeling of it being "right" – that this land was meant to be ours – was strong for us right from the start. Seeing the listing, perusing the neighborhood, and then setting foot on it for the first time, we were overwhelmed by our connection to it. It was exactly the peaceful retreat we had envisioned back in 2020 when we were itching to distance ourselves from Boston. It didn't hurt that we had our property visits straight through foliage season, so we got to see the mountains in all their vibrant glory. Also, those northern lights sightings that seemed to come out of nowhere and break our utterly disappointing losing streak? The first sighting was the day we put in our offer, and the second was the day the subdivision got approved. We mentioned that our first sighting was kismet. Guess we're providing more context for that now.

This led me, in all my hippie energetic spirituality, to think that we would definitely see the northern lights from our land when we finally parked there! Only, what are the chances, really? Central NH isn't exactly an aurora chaser's prime destination. But, after a couple of days boondocking on the land, a substorm rolled in, and a faint pink auroral glow emerged from the north.

We love telling the story of the auroral "signs" that we were making the right choice, but in reality, all we needed was our dream and our volition...and lots and lots of Benjamins and a whole team of professionals. Now, we have a second home-base for our RV, in a little White Mountain sanctuary that we can call ours.

Now for the tough question: What does it all mean for our RV life?! We're extremely lucky that this piece of land was ready for our RV without any extra work. Turns out, the property used to be logging territory for the forest, so large trucks were no stranger to the area. The seller and his friend – now both our neighbors – roughed in the logging road that we now use to pull our trailer onto the property. There aren't any utilities yet, but our setup allows us to boondock for days without issue. At the time of writing this, we've spent about 10 days on the land in two separate stints. That's where we were when we were being all cryptic in this blog post. For not expecting to buy land this year, the timing couldn't have been better, because we had a safe haven during our fall flail-about!

Now in December, the winter weather has arrived up there, and we are at our original home-base on my parent's property, enjoying our annual holiday stationary time. We had already made plans to launch back on the road around New Year's, and that plan hasn't changed. We have lots of travels to continue, lots of places to see, and lots of repairs to get on our RV (ahem, ahem). Then, when we decide to come back, we'll have our new home-base waiting to welcome us. For a while, it'll be just that – a place to park our RV and enjoy the peacefulness of the White Mountains. Later, we'll run utilities and eventually build some structures, but even then, we have no plans to stop RVing. We will gradually transition to part-time RV life, and by "gradually," we mean over the course of probably years. Then, when it comes time to build our dream home, we plan to build a spot for our RV.

That's the big difference between our vision in 2020 and our vision now. We're hooked on the RV lifestyle. We would have never expected to someday be part-time RVers, but this style of travel fits perfectly with our passion for road tripping. That passion has been a constant throughout our lives. In a lot of ways, we feel like we've come full circle in purchasing this land. We took the first step towards achieving the dream that RVing made feasible. But RVing has become another dream. We can't begin to explain how much our years of full-timing have enriched our lives and made us better people. Now, to be able to merge these two dreams by camping on our land, envisioning all that's to come in our future, we've found the perfect balance of rooted and rootless.